The Good Wife: "The Seven Day Rule" (Episode 4.13)

I’ve never been to law school. I’ve never litigated a case or worked at a law firm. But even I understand what the term “equity partner” means. Alicia’s utter shock that it would cost $600,000 to become an equity partner at Lockhart Gardner was ridiculous. Maybe it was more money than she expected it to be, but she had to know it would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range, right? I mean I would know to ask about the financial requirements before I went on a shopping spree. And since when does Alicia go on shopping sprees?

Also, I’ve been watching The Good Wife all season long. They talk about the fact that they are in bankruptcy every five minutes. You couldn’t even make a drinking game of drinking every time a character says the word “bankruptcy” because you would be drunk 15 minutes in. The second Will and Diane offered Alicia a partnership I thought, “It’s because they need the money, right?” It never occurred to Alicia that might be the reason she was going from fourth-year associate to partner? Seriously? Alicia is one of the smartest female characters on television, but she was acting completely daft throughout “The Seven Day Rule.”

Her out-of-character and clueless behavior took away from what could have been a great episode. The hour brought back two of the show’s favorite nemeses—Neil Gross (John Benjamin Hickey) and Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox). One thing I really admire about The Good Wife is that it always manages to bring back great guest stars in innovative ways.

This time Internet billionaire Neil Gross returns because he’s getting married and his fiancée Deena wants Lockhart Gardner to review the pre-nuptial agreement. That means viewers were treated to the delightful David Lee, who is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite TV characters. David, I would eat M&Ms with you any time. Lee sees big money coming from landing Gross’s soon-to-be better-half. The trick is to make the couple fight enough that Deena gets a good pre-nuptial agreement but not fight so much that they break up. The case showcased the utterly delightful smarminess Zach Grenier brings to the role of David Lee. I suspect we will be seeing Neil and Deena again soon.

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Diane and Will ask for an extension in bankruptcy court and face Louis Canning. I love when Canning plays the sympathy card, and his bit about the money from his investment in Lockhart Gardner going to fund research for his disease was a hoot. In the end Clarke (Nathan Lane) ended up helping the firm and they got their extension. He also helped David Lee indirectly because Cary remembered Clarke’s advice that accountants always hide information in their footnotes. Turns out Neil Gross is supporting a child who is the result of a one-night stand. (Although considering he’s a billionaire, he’s not supporting the child all that well.)

This episode seemed to close the book on both the bankruptcy storyline and Clarke’s story arc, which is a good thing. Both were quickly becoming tedious. Clarke is about to take the bar exam. If he passes, let’s not have him come to work for Will and Diane. His character never quite worked.

Alicia and Maddie Hayward (Maura Tierney) finally meet again, which led to my favorite line of the night. “You have any new friends?” Alicia asks her. Eli and Jordan (T.R. Knight) have both begged Alicia to say she believes in God because they are about to attack Maddie Hayward for being an atheist. Alicia acts like she’s going to go along with their request until a reporter directly asks her and she responds, “I’m an atheist.” That’s our girl.

But Alicia acting all pouty when she realized Will and Diane had asked four other associates to also become equity partners is not the character we all know. I’m glad Diane said something and snapped her back to reality.

Other thoughts on the episode:
• Is the whole Indira Starr affair ever going to come up again?
• I don’t prefer when Alicia is randomly rude to people. I get her at times antagonistic attitude toward Eli, but it was just weird how outright hostile she was to Jordan.
• Now that we got rid of Nick, Kalinda is being completely underutilized. Are we being punished for complaining so much?

The Good Wife: “The Seven Day Rule” (Episode 4.13)